File photo by PV Sindhu©AFP
Indian shuttlers once again got off to a poor start after the country’s challenge in the women’s and mixed doubles competitions at the Denmark Open Super 750 tournament ended on Wednesday. Both Indian pairs in action – Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand (women’s doubles) and B Summeth Reddy and N Sikki Reddy (mixed doubles) – suffered heartbreaking three-game defeats in their opening matches. Taking the court first, Treesa and Gayatri squandered a match lead to lose 21-19 17-21 15-21 to Malaysia’s fifth-seeded combination of Pearly Tan and Muralitharan Thinaah in the opening match of the women’s doubles which lasted one hour and 14 minutes.
The odds were always stacked against the world No. 21 Indian duo as they enjoyed an inferior record of 1-5 against their world No. 7 opponents Malaysia. But Treesa and Gayatri still gave a tough fight to their rivals before retiring.
In mixed doubles too, Sumeeth Reddy and Sikki Reddy also surrendered a one-match lead to lose 22-20 19-21 22-24 to the Canadian pair of Kevin Lee and Eliana Zhang in an hour and two minutes.
Later on Wednesday, promising Unnati Hooda will face American Lauren Lam in her first round match in the women’s singles, while Satish Kumar Karunakaran will take on Li Yang Su of Chinese Taipei in the men’s singles.
Earlier on Tuesday, 2021 World Championships bronze medalist Lakshya Sen also crashed out in the first round of the men’s singles event after suffering a three-game defeat at the hands of China’s Lu Guang Zu.
As if that wasn’t enough, Malvika Bansod and Aakarshi Kashyap were also eliminated in the first round of the women’s singles competition.
The only bright spot was two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu, who advanced to the second round after her opponent Pai Yu Po of Chinese Taipei retired midway through the second match with a score of 21-8, 13- 7 in favor of the Indians.
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